Ideas Have Consequences

Richard M. Weaver argues that the decline of Western civilization resulted from the rising acceptance of relativism over absolute reality. In spite of increased knowledge, this retreat from the realist intellectual tradition has weakened the Western capacity to reason, with catastrophic consequences for social order and individual rights. But Weaver also offers a realistic remedy. These difficulties are the product not of necessity, but of intelligent choice.

Awful main narrator. Writing style is dull.

By
neil b
on
10-22-17

The Conservative Mind

From Burke to Eliot

By:
Russell Kirk

Narrated by:
Phillip Davidson

Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

143

Performance

95

Story

93

Kirk defines "the conservative mind" by examining such brilliant men as Edmund Burke, James Fenimore Cooper, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Benjamin Disraeli, Cardinal Newman, George Santayana, and finally, T.S. Eliot. Vigorously written, the book represents conservatism as an ideology born of sound intellectual traditions.

Christian view of property rights

By
John
on
11-29-11

12 Rules for Life

An Antidote to Chaos

By:
Jordan B. Peterson,
Norman Doidge - foreword M.D.

Narrated by:
Jordan B. Peterson

Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

2,404

Performance

2,200

Story

2,180

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

The cure to find meaning in a meaningless world

By
Free Debreuil
on
01-24-18

A Conflict of Visions

Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

By:
Thomas Sowell

Narrated by:
Michael Edwards

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

234

Performance

154

Story

148

In this book, which the author calls a "culmination of 30 years of work in the history of ideas", Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature. Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions.

Not a lite listen

By
Sierra Bravo
on
06-13-07

The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy

By:
Christopher Lasch

Narrated by:
David de Vries

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged

Overall

10

Performance

9

Story

9

In this challenging work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong with the values and beliefs of America's professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today is threatened not by the masses, as Jose Ortega y Gasset (
The Revolt of the Masses) had said, but by the elites. These elites - mobile and increasingly global in outlook - refuse to accept limits or ties to nation and place.

Democracy in America

By:
Alexis de Tocqueville

Narrated by:
John Pruden

Length: 34 hrs and 9 mins

Unabridged

Overall

295

Performance

242

Story

251

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was
Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.

Most Listenable, if not the Best Translation

By
Michael Allen
on
10-04-13

Ideas Have Consequences

Richard M. Weaver argues that the decline of Western civilization resulted from the rising acceptance of relativism over absolute reality. In spite of increased knowledge, this retreat from the realist intellectual tradition has weakened the Western capacity to reason, with catastrophic consequences for social order and individual rights. But Weaver also offers a realistic remedy. These difficulties are the product not of necessity, but of intelligent choice.

Awful main narrator. Writing style is dull.

By
neil b
on
10-22-17

The Conservative Mind

From Burke to Eliot

By:
Russell Kirk

Narrated by:
Phillip Davidson

Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

143

Performance

95

Story

93

Kirk defines "the conservative mind" by examining such brilliant men as Edmund Burke, James Fenimore Cooper, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Benjamin Disraeli, Cardinal Newman, George Santayana, and finally, T.S. Eliot. Vigorously written, the book represents conservatism as an ideology born of sound intellectual traditions.

Christian view of property rights

By
John
on
11-29-11

12 Rules for Life

An Antidote to Chaos

By:
Jordan B. Peterson,
Norman Doidge - foreword M.D.

Narrated by:
Jordan B. Peterson

Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

2,404

Performance

2,200

Story

2,180

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

The cure to find meaning in a meaningless world

By
Free Debreuil
on
01-24-18

A Conflict of Visions

Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

By:
Thomas Sowell

Narrated by:
Michael Edwards

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

234

Performance

154

Story

148

In this book, which the author calls a "culmination of 30 years of work in the history of ideas", Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature. Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions.

Not a lite listen

By
Sierra Bravo
on
06-13-07

The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy

By:
Christopher Lasch

Narrated by:
David de Vries

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged

Overall

10

Performance

9

Story

9

In this challenging work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong with the values and beliefs of America's professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today is threatened not by the masses, as Jose Ortega y Gasset (
The Revolt of the Masses) had said, but by the elites. These elites - mobile and increasingly global in outlook - refuse to accept limits or ties to nation and place.

Democracy in America

By:
Alexis de Tocqueville

Narrated by:
John Pruden

Length: 34 hrs and 9 mins

Unabridged

Overall

295

Performance

242

Story

251

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was
Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.

Most Listenable, if not the Best Translation

By
Michael Allen
on
10-04-13

Rediscovering Americanism

And the Tyranny of Progressivism

By:
Mark R. Levin

Narrated by:
Jeremy Lowell,
Mark R. Levin

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

564

Performance

513

Story

505

In
Rediscovering Americanism, Mark R. Levin revisits the founders' warnings about the perils of overreach by the federal government and concludes that the men who created our country would be outraged and disappointed to see where we've ended up. Levin returns to the impassioned question he's explored in each of his best-selling books: How do we save our exceptional country? Because our values are in such a precarious state, he argues that a restoration to the essential truths on which our country was founded has never been more urgent.

Such an awesome book, narration did not suit me.

By
Amazon Customer
on
08-20-17

The Quest for Cosmic Justice

By:
Thomas Sowell

Narrated by:
Robertson Dean

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Unabridged

Overall

165

Performance

149

Story

147

This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends.
The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies.

Essential reading. Well said.

By
Objective Reviewr
on
09-07-17

God and Man at Yale

The Superstitions of Academic Freedom

By:
William F. Buckley Jr.

Narrated by:
Michael Edwards

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

107

Performance

68

Story

65

This is the book that launched William F. Buckley, Jr.'s career. As a young, recent Yale graduate, he took on Yale's professional and administrative staffs, citing their hypocritical diversion from the tenets on which the institution was built. Yale was founded on the belief that God exists, and thus that virtue and individualism represent immutable cornerstones of education. However, when Buckley wrote this scathing expose, the institution had made an about face.

Still Relevant Today

By
Douglas
on
02-23-13

Reflections on the Revolution in France

By:
Edmund Burke

Narrated by:
Bernard Mayes

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

56

Performance

48

Story

44

This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world.

A good historical perspective

By
CMC
on
08-30-14

The Big Lie

Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left

By:
Dinesh D'Souza

Narrated by:
David Cochran Heath

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

1,435

Performance

1,295

Story

1,282

What is "the big lie" of the Democratic Party? That conservatives - and President Donald Trump in particular - are fascists. Nazis, even. In a typical comment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says the Trump era is reminiscent of "what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor." But in fact, this audacious lie is a complete inversion of the truth. Yes, there is a fascist threat in America - but that threat is from the Left and the Democratic Party.

The Fascist Left In America

By
Donald P. Jane
on
11-02-17

The Vanishing American Adult

Our Coming-of-Age Crisis - and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance

By:
Ben Sasse

Narrated by:
Ben Sasse

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Unabridged

Overall

978

Performance

879

Story

870

In
The Vanishing American Adult, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue - hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body - and explains how parents can encourage them.

A truly non-partisan essay on being an American

By
Anne
on
07-06-17

The Devil’s Pleasure Palace

The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West

By:
Michael Walsh

Narrated by:
Michael Walsh

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

149

Performance

136

Story

135

In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of "critical theory".

Magnificent

By
P Kevin Wells
on
10-30-15

The Road to Serfdom, the Definitive Edition

Text and Documents

By:
F. A. Hayek,
Bruce Caldwell - editor

Narrated by:
William Hughes

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Unabridged

Overall

48

Performance

46

Story

44

An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics,
The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and the public for half a century. Originally published in 1944 - when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program -
The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production.

Timely Message for Today

By
Chester Biggs
on
01-14-18

The Once and Future Liberal

After Identity Politics

By:
Mark Lilla

Narrated by:
Charles Constant

Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

165

Performance

147

Story

149

From one of the country's most admired political thinkers, an urgent wake-up call to American liberals to turn from the divisive politics of identity and develop a vision of our future that can persuade all citizens that they share a common destiny.

Couldn’t Agree More!

By
Ricky Verret
on
09-11-17

The Gulag Archipelago, Volume l

The Prison Industry and Perpetual Motion

By:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by:
Frederick Davidson

Length: 26 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

649

Performance

594

Story

592

In this masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn has orchestrated thousands of incidents and individual histories into one narrative of unflagging power and momentum. Written in a tone that encompasses Olympian wrath, bitter calm, savage irony, and sheer comedy, it combines history, autobiography, documentary, and political analysis as it examines in its totality the Soviet apparatus of repression from its inception following the October Revolution of 1917.

Not for the feint of heart

By
joseph
on
11-19-12

Who Killed Homer?

The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom

By:
Victor Davis Hanson,
John Heath

Narrated by:
Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged

Overall

74

Performance

71

Story

70

For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture’s unique tenets of democracy, capitalism, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. Yet the general public in America knows less about its cultural origins than ever before, as Classical education rapidly disappears from our high school and university curricula.

Required reading

By
Sotiris
on
07-28-15

The Smear

How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote

By:
Sharyl Attkisson

Narrated by:
Sharyl Attkisson

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

513

Performance

479

Story

476

Behind most major political stories in the modern era, there is an agenda - an effort by opposition researchers, spin doctors, and outside interests to destroy an idea or a person. The tactic they use is the Smear. Every day, Americans are influenced by the Smear without knowing it. Paid forces cleverly shape virtually every image you cross. Maybe you read that Donald Trump is a racist misogynist or saw someone on the news mocking the Bernie Sanders campaign. The trick of the Smear is that it is often based on some shred of truth.

Devestating Reporting on...Reporters and The Smear

By
Charles Atkinson
on
06-29-17

Publisher's Summary

In one of the most important books of our time, Allan Bloom, a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago and a noted translator of Plato and Rousseau, argues that the social and political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Bloom cites everything from the universities' lack of purpose to the students' lack of learning, from the jargon of liberation to the supplanting of reason by so-called creativity. Furthermore, he shows how American democracy has unwittingly played host to vulgarized Continental ideas of nihilism and despair, of relativism disguised as tolerance, while demonstrating that the collective mind of the American university is closed to the very principles of spiritual heritage that gave rise to the university in the first place.

Critic Reviews

"With clarity, gravity, and grace, Bloom makes a convincing case for the improbable proposition that reading old books about the permanent questions could help to reestablish reason and restore the soul." (Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard University)

Story

VERY IMPORTANT WORK!

Allen Bloom's THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND is monumentally important, especially in regard to its central assertion that the surface American education's first principle has for some time now been: "To avoid discrimination [particularly in regard to class, culture, race, and religion or lack thereof], one must be indescriminate in all. The one exception, and the thing to be hated, is the man who asserts otherwise." I am always just utterly amazed at how absolutely relativistic (parodox intended) 99% of my college students have become in their judgements (or rather lack of them) regarding lit and art. I push them to extremes. They will proclaim (as though programmed to say so--and Bloom says they are) that Brittney Spears "music" is every bit as good as Mozart's "for the person who hears it that way." I actually ask them if a pile of dog dung on a paper plate is as much art as Michalangelo's David, and you would not believe how many will, without a twitch, say that it is "if someone thinks it is," as though putting forth an opinion in regard to any obvious difference in quality will lead directly to the acceptance of Hitler's race policies--or, at least, they don't want to be viewed as having any "dangerous" opinions, whether or not they really have them. And this is Bloom's brilliant argument--"absolute freedom" (everything is equally good) has supplanted real freedom (the ability to say the truth or even think it). In another class, in which we study different models of morality, many students will assert with an absolute straight face (get ready!) that baby-torturing, if accepted by a given cultural as moral, would be a moral activity to take part in. What can one even say to such things?!--but Bloom saw this type of non-thinking and warned of the extremes to which it could, and would be taken.

The Devolution Of The University

A brilliant review of how the modern university came into being. It covers a wide range of philosophers from Aristotle to Nietzsche and examines their profound influence on western thought and the modern university. Bloom makes a sound case for the return to classical education.

A Must Read!

A must read!
Enlightening, in-depth, comprehensive dissective analysis of the American educational system. Bloom's firsthand account is extremely well-written and this audio version is expertly read. My only complaint is that it ended too soon.

The Most Important Book In The World

Bloom's book should be required reading for every American, but especially for college age Americans. This book will change the way you view the world. It will pull the rug out from underneath you and there aren't many books that will do that. Read this book. Then read it again and again until you have one of those "OMG!" moments.

A friend of mine was reading this book for a class and I told her, 'Oh come on that's a bunch of garbage." Later, I read the book, and it has fundamentally shaken my views of liberal education, made me question my allegiance to the Republican party--indeed, to any party, and has opened my mind to the sheer ignorance with which I and most people in America live their lives. This book will make you embrace education like a man who has spent months in a hot desert will embrace water.
READ THIS BOOK NOW!

Lots of food for thought

While I must say that I didn't fully agree with all of the conclusions that the author drew, I loved delving into the ideas he presented and I did agree with much of it. I think that everyone should consider reading this book. I ended up buying a print copy because I want to be able to refer to it again at specific sections and also because at times the sarcasm was hard to follow because of sarcasm. It would have been much better if the narrator had made it clear when he was switching to sarcasm, so I rated the performance a 4.

Philosopher Allan Bloom's muddled philosophy!

I not a fan Allan Bloom's philosophy and I believe he is generally vastly overrated; however, this 1987 book hits upon the issues of the higher education system in the US with startling clarity. The Closing of the American Mind is a worthwhile listen that accurately forecasts the more recent drastic deterioration of US higher education. Narration of the audiobook is barely acceptable.

A digest of the intellectual conservitive movement

Any additional comments?

I was struck by how little of this book was not familiar. I'm 38 years old, and I read a lot. The fact that I've heard almost all the arguments contained in this book, even though it's now 27 years since it was written, tells me that it has been very influential. Everything in it has been amplified by repetition.

So, it was not a book that "made me think," because I've heard it all before- from Bloom's description of conviction-less Gen X students to the influence of the Frankfurt School on American intellectuals. If you've glanced at National Review sometime in the last two decades you've seen it all.

That's not a hit on Bloom, because he's the original compiler. These ideas were all floating around, but he put them all in one place.

Honestly, the best part for me was early on. There's a good discussion of rock music, which will seem quaint to readers who've lived their entire lives in the era since the 1950s. Bloom is still right- the influence of music on the lives of the young is underrated. Much attention remains focused on other external influences such as video games or movies when it is music that matters. I think this part of the book has the deepest bite. People seem very defensive about their music, and music has an undue influence on their thinking. My coworkers spend hundreds of dollars on car stereos. I buy new tires instead. I get Bloom's point.

Overall, if you want to understand the intellectual side of the conservative movement this is a very good place to start. If you have a background in the liberal arts, especially in 19th and 20th century philosophy, that will help a lot. Otherwise it can be very hard going.

This isn't an anti-liberal screed so much as a Platonic defense of absolute truth, and the pursuit of the good. The extent to which this criticism falls on liberals is a result of their own abdication of the responsibility that they once took seriously- to educate the young in the service of building a better society. They don't even know what that is anymore, to their cost. Creating a blasted nihilistic world of the mind for our best and brightest is not a plan designed to produce an elite with the common good foremost in their minds.

The education of our elite is the subject of this book. Looking around, it's obvious that whatever education our current elite received it was sorely lacking in moral direction. If that's a conservative message, what happened to the liberals?

Wonderful Book - Typical Boring Narration

Ive read the book several times and find it filled with many important insights for those living in our Constitutional republic. I also have an old recording on cassettes which were narrated by Allan Bloom himself. I was hoping that this would be the same recording, but available in a modern audio format without all the hiss of those old cassette tapes. Unfortunately, someone else narrated the book. He has the typical syrupy but monotonous kind of voice so often found in audio books. There's none of the inflection or passion of the author when he read the book. I find it hard to keep my eyes open when listening to this version. Does the narrator even understand what he's reading, its significance ? This version lulls me to sleep. I better not drive with it on. I doubt I will finish listening to this version. It was quite a disappointment. Even though I don't think I can listen to more than 10 minutes of it, I can't bear to give the book a horrible rating. The content deserves 5 stars. - -

Meanderings of philosophers...

I found this book meandering, hard to follow, and confusing. There were a few points where the authors connects to help the reader understand the pitfalls in education that got us where we are today. I admit that I do not have the background in all of the classic literature that the author identifies, and am therefore at a disadvantage (as he endlessley quotes them) to separate the quoted material from the author's opinions, perceptions, observations, and theories. Most of the wittiness and pertinant observations may have gone right over my head. I am a truth seeker and thinker but (I guess) not an intellectual so most of the information in this presentation I found unusable. In part 3 the author admits that the purpose of the classic philosophers (that he quotes incessantly) is to break the relationship between God and man using reason. They promote atheism or the worship of man. I am dissatisfied with this conclusion, and for me in rings hollow.

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Andreas H Bartels

10-13-17

Wonderful

I’m not one to buy hardcover, but this needs to be on the bookshelf to go back to again and again.

Overall

Performance

Story

Greg Gauthier

02-13-17

Allan Bloom is a prophet

I used to see this book as a diagnosis of the past, but if you want to understand the present political and social situation of the west, you'll read this book.

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Amazon Customer

05-30-17

Heavy going at times but important.

Gives a thorough exposition of the decline in Western thought across the Twentieth Century. Essential reading.

Overall

Performance

Story

Marita

04-23-17

A powerful statement

Would you try another book written by Allan Bloom or narrated by Christopher Hurt?

Maybe. It would depend on the title.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I found it fascinating to hear a commentator with such a large view explain the impulses and movements that have made a direct contribution to the world in which we live. I didn't make it to the end - it's a long book, and it became just a bit tedious around the middle. I found I kept losing concentration. I might go back to it a bit later.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

I doubt you could make it a film. Maybe a documentary. Yes, I would - it might make it easier to follow - the filmmaker could do all the hard work.